SKS Microfinance crosses the 50,000 member milestone in Vizag.

• Vizag is the fastest growing area for SKS microfinance.
• Plans to reach out to 80,000 poor households this fiscal with income-generating loans

Vishakapatnam, Hyderabad - Dec.26, 2007

SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd, the new generation microfinance company, had launched operations in Vizag in July 2007 and crossed the 50,000 member enrollment milestone in December 2007. With this, the Vizag area is the considered as the fastest growing area for SKS.

SKS Microfinance, a registered NBFC, aims to empower poor women to become economically self reliant by giving them access to income-generating loans and other financial services in a sustainable manner. SKS Microfinance is the fastest growing microfinance institution in the world.

SKS covers Vizag, E. Godavari, W. Godavari, Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam districts under the Vizag area. SKS plans to have a footprint across the rural, semi urban and urban locations of the area. Since launch, SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd. has disbursed over Rs. 26 crores with an outstanding of over Rs. 22 crores wherein the average loan amount size is Rs. 7388 per person in the Vizag area.

Initially, SKS gives loans up to Rs.12,000 to members without any collateral. SKS operations are modeled on the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. The repayments are collected over 50 weeks in weekly installments. A further mid-term loan of up to Rs.4000/- can be accessed by the members after 25 weeks.

“The Vizag area has shown us a tremendous growth rate and we are happy with the way we have scaled up in this area. We have enrolled over 50,000 members in just 5 months since launch of operations. We hope to reach out to 80,000 poor households this fiscal and to 3, 00,000 poor household by fiscal end 2010,” according to Mr. K.V.Rao, Vice President-Member Services.